


My Turn to Protect You

by FinneonJames



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts 3 - Fandom
Genre: Awesome Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Diary/Journal, Epistolary, Gen, Gummi Ship, Kairi & Lea (Kingdom Hearts) Friendship, Keyblade Wielder Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), POV Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Princesses of Heart - Freeform, Twilight Town (Kingdom Hearts), gummi garage, kairi and lea training
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-10
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-01-11 01:26:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18419963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FinneonJames/pseuds/FinneonJames
Summary: I really had big hopes that KH3 would finally be Kairi's time to shine. Unfortunately, Normura refused to answer the call, so I guess I'll have to do it.This is Kairi's journal as she trains with Lea in the time-bubble outside of Twilight Town during KH3. Everything is plugging along fine until she gets her new outfit and realizes it is NOT designed for fighting. Then when Lea is allowed to refuse to wear his, but Kairi isn't, she knows the old men training her are punting her aside and aren't going to be any help with fulfilling her promise to Sora. She's going to have to take her training into her own hands. It's time for Kairi to have her big adventure.





	1. Your Journey Begins at Midday

Day 13

I've decided to start keeping a journal. My letters to Sora are nice, and they help me process everything that's going on, but I want somewhere that's just for me.

It's been about two weeks that we've been here training. The first week was rough. We've mostly been meditating; we've both been able to summon keyblades on accident, but "we need to be able to find where that power lives within us so we can access it at will" (says Merlin). That's all fine, but meditation training basically sucks for two reasons:

1\. We're being trained by Merlin, who is amazing, but frankly not that great at leading meditations. I can't think of a single time I've seen him even resemble anything that could be described as "still".

2\. It was hard for a while for me to focus on anything at all--let alone access the powers that lay dormant within the light of my heart--sitting in a room with ~~Axel~~ Lea. I look at him and all I can see is the man who kidnapped me.

I know he's a different person now (or, maybe, he was a different person then?). But it's like there's a split in my brain so that I can know it and still not Know It at the same time. Like this:

 

For the first week I wouldn't talk to him at all, and I hardly even looked at him. But he still brought me ice cream after training every day. He would offer me the ice cream and then just... sit with me. He never pressured me to talk, or even to accept anything from him.

I think he understands.

I think he's sorry.

The first time I accepted the ice cream from him, I apologized for being so cold. He just laughed as said, "That's okay--it took Roxas a while to open up too! I don't mind. Anyway, it's me who should be sorry."

And we started talking. 

I started learning about him.

It's amazing. Everything he's doing--everything he's done--has all been to try to get Roxas back. I can understand that. I know it doesn't make anything okay, but it helps me understand, and that matters too.

I want to keep talking to ~~Axe~~ Lea, and keep getting to know him. I think the more I understand him, the more the two sides of my brain will be able to agree with each other.

* * *

 

Where we're training, we're in... it's some kind of time bubble. Merlin explained it once, but I only followed enough to understand that we'll have all the time we need, and we're outside of the normal flow of time. For our own sake, we still break up our time into days and weeks. At the end of each week we get a day off and we can go into town (we're just outside of Twilight Town! In the forest behind the old mansion.)

We've had one day off so far. ~~Axe~~ Lea spent it visiting "old friends". He said he figures he owes Hayner, Pence, and Olette and explanation the same as me. He asked if I'd go with him to back him up, but he retracted the question before I could answer.

I'm glad he did. I'm getting to know him better and getting more comfortable, but I don't know if I'd be ready to defend him to the people who sheltered me from him.

The only other time I'd ever been to Twilight Town before was... limited. So I just spent the day wandering. It's such a huge town with so much to explore!  I started at the mansion and worked my way up through the town. There's so much going on everywhere, it wasn't hard to fill a day between exploring tunnels, cheering on strugglers, and catching a movie. Eventually I worked my way to the train station at the top of the hill. It seemed like it would have the best view in town, so it would be a good spot to close out the day.

When I got there, I saw ~~Ax~~ Lea sitting up on the clock tower. It looked so peaceful, and I wanted to join him, but I had no idea how he got up there. I almost called out to him, but I thought better of it when I looked closer. He was holding two ice cream bars, and he looked like he was crying.

That was a week ago, and I haven't mentioned it. I don't think he knows I saw him, and it seems unkind to bring it up.

We have another day off tomorrow, and ~~Ax~~ Lea and I are gonna spend it together. Maybe if I'm with him I can help him keep his mind off whatever has been bothering him. Plus he said he'd show me all the best shops in town--maybe even his super secret ice cream supplier!

Fingers crossed for a fun and relaxing day, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you read, thanks! Leave me a comment; what would you do with a day off in Twilight Town?


	2. Starship Discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi and Lea spend a day on the town. Kairi finds a new fascination.

Day 14

Today was. A lot.

Things got off to a rocky start when I told Lea I wanted to visit Hayner, Pence, and Olette. The last time they saw me I was in pretty bad trouble, and I wanted to catch up with them and let them know I was okay. As soon as I suggested it, Lea got really uncomfortable--shifting his weight and looking down at his hands a lot. He made some lame excuse for why he couldn't go with me, and we agreed to meet up for lunch and then spend the afternoon together.

I headed up to Hayner, Pence, and Olette's "usual spot" alone, and was surprised to find that Pence was the only one there. For some reason I've always thought of the three of them as a matched set. But Pence jumped up to hug me as soon as I walked in, and it felt nice to know that he remembered and cared about me.

"I'm so glad to see you! Axel was here yesterday and he said you were in town--or, I guess we call him Lea now... But how are you!? Are you okay? How have you been?" Pence straightened the cushions on the couch for me and took a seat on a stack of boxes.

"It's good to see you too, Pence! Yeah, Lea and I are both here training to help Sora. Did you say he was here yesterday? It's been a week since our last day off..." In the time it took for me to say it, I realized it was because of Merlin's magic; of course time is passing differently for me and Lea than it is for everyone else.

"No, he's definitely only visited us once and it was yesterday. He came to apologize for what he did before, but he mostly wanted to talk about Roxas. We had to tell him we don't remember Roxas, but we're trying to help him. He didn't seem to want to stick around much after that."

As I sat down on the couch, Hayner and Olette came in with pretzels, and I jumped right back up again to hug them and greet them and catch them up on my conversation with Pence. Hayner nodded grimly while I recounted what Pence had told me.

"Yeah he got real quiet when he realized we didn't remember Roxas."

Olette chimed in: "We tried to tell him what we know--what we learned from Sora I mean-- and what we're doing to try to help, but he made an excuse and left in a hurry."

"I think he came here really wanting to talk about Roxas to people who know him," Pence said. "He was pretty disappointed." Hayner and Olette both nodded. 

It makes sense that Lea would be upset, but I wish he wouldn't always just run away from anything that reminded him of it. He might find out what he wanted to know if he had stuck around to hear what everyone had to say. Pence showed me a photo of the three of them standing with Roxas in front of the old mansion, and told me "Sora gave us this picture. I guess we were friends with Roxas in the Other Twilight Town." That seems like the kind of thing Lea would be glad to know, but I don't think it's my place to bring it up. Hopefully someday soon he'll be able to talk to Hayner, Pence, and Olette about all of this.

* * *

I met up with Lea at the new restaurant in Tram Common around midday. He had already gotten us a table outside and we had a delicious lunch in the shade of a poplar tree. At the end of the meal the owner of the restaurant came out to introduce us to the chef, a small rat riding on his shoulder! While I was thanking the little chef for the meal, Lea had a whispered conversation with the restaurant owner, who disappeared and came back with two ice creams for us.

"Is that your source?" I asked Lea, with a mock-conspiratorial air.

He put a finger to his nose and winked. "You just gotta know who to know."

We caught a quick movie while we finished our ice creams, then Lea took me around all the shops. There was an item shop and an accessory shop, and Lea explained how those would be useful once we had summoned our keyblades and could start our "real training". Then he brought me to a shop staffed by moogles. 

"Now this shop I like," he explained, "Because you don't actually need any money and you can still get some pretty good stuff. Even better stuff than at most shops, even. You just bring them stuff you find around, and they forge it into potions or different kinds of rings or... whatever! Great huh?"

Clearly this was what Lea meant when he said he would show be all the best spots. He seemed very proud to present it to me, so I acted very excited to be shown. And it _was_ really cool. Lea went over to a trash can, gave it a kick, then gave the rocks that fell out of it to the moogle and had the moogle make them into a ring for me! That is, objectively, very great. But Lea was a lot more excited about it than I was and got into talking shop with the moogles there. 

There was a shop across from the moogles that caught my interest, that Lea hadn't mentioned at all. It seemed to be staffed by three little kids, and the emblem above it reminded me of the ship Sora had told me about. The one he used to get between different worlds. Lea didn't seem to mind what I did at that point, so I went over to check it out.

The three shopkeepers introduced themselves as Huey, Dewey, and Louie--nephews of the restaurant owner. I told them what I knew about Sora's ship, and asked if they knew anything about it.

"Oh sure!" One of them said. "We know Sora!"

"Yeah!" Chimed in another one. "We go way back! He used to come to our item shop all the time, but now we're in the Gummi business."

"It sounds like you're talking about a Gummi Ship." Said the third. "We develop, produce, and sell gummi ship parts here. Sora's still a loyal customer of ours!"

I wish I had paid more attention when they were introducing themselves; now I can't tell them apart at all. I just gotta roll with it I guess.

"That's amazing! I've always been curious about Sora's spaceship; will you tell me about it?"

They explained to me about gummi blocks and Sora's gummi ship, and I ate it up. Before all of this started, I was studying navigation and engineering: Sora and Riku talked a lot about how much work they were doing on the raft, but I was the one they always had to come to to find out what work needed to be done. A lot of what I learned working on the raft seemed related to what these kids were telling me about Gummi Ships. Realizing this was something I could learn and understand, I wanted to start learning as much of it as I could as fast as possible. I think all my questions took the kids off-guard, but they were really excited to have someone so interested at their shop.

"You know, we're working on a new type of engine block; do you wanna help us test it out?" One of them asked and the other two nodded excitedly. 

"I would love that! Can we go now? What do I need to do?" I was already looking around for where to go to board their test ship while I was asking.

"Nah, we have to finish up the day. Come back after the store is closed today and we'll take you out for a test flight!"

I headed back to Lea and told him all about the Gummi shop and everything I had learned. Really I talked his ear off for the rest of the afternoon, all about the similarities between naval navigation and space flight, and how the properties of full three-dimensional travel apply in similar and different ways to both. Finally after almost two hours of wandering around and letting me talk, he put his hand on my shoulder.

"Wow, I guess I shoulda led with that place. I'm glad you found it though. Listen, it's getting late and I've gotta be somewhere. I'll see you back at training tomorrow, okay?"

He left, and I saw him stop at the bistro for more ice cream before heading up toward the clock tower. I went back to the gummi shop and just waited around for them to close.

* * *

Finally, Huey, Dewey, and Louie closed up the shop and let me in to the back room. They led me down some narrow cellar stairs which opened up into a huge cavernous garage. There was a workshop with a few work benches and tools hanging on pegboards that covered the walls. There were blueprints and schematics up on drafting tables, and some tacked up on the wall. In the middle of the room was a huge ship.

The Gummi Ship Kids got to work right away, attaching the new engine block they wanted to test out, explaining everything they were doing as they did it so I could learn. When we got on board, they put me in the pilot's seat and explained the controls. Everything is laid out surprisingly straight-forwardly for a spaceship. There's an acceleration, a yoke, shield and weapons controls, and,

"When you're ready to launch," explained one of the kids, "all you gotta do is hit this big green button here." 

The button he was pointing to was easily the biggest button on the control panel. It looked comically big, even, like something out of a cartoon. I slammed that button, expecting engines to fire up and the ship to start to lift off through the hatch in front of us. Instead, we fell through the bottom of the world. I wasn't expecting to go so suddenly or so fast or _in that direction_ , so I screamed, and the kids laughed and laughed. I think they had been waiting to play that joke on someone for a while.

But once we were flying I didn't mind at all. None of that mattered. It came so naturally to me and I had so much fun! One of the kids pulled out a form and started making notes about the performance of the new engine, while the other two kept giving me challenges.

"See if you can do a loop around that meteor!"

"Now BLOW UP the meteor!"

And a round of cheers as I did. 

When the test flight was over and I had successfully docked the ship, the kids were happy and excited, but I could tell they were tired too. I asked them about it and they said, "Yeah, testing days are hard because we can only do test flights after the shop is closed, so it makes a pretty long day for us."

"Well... I can run test flights for you if you want. That way, you won't have to leave the shop unattended, _or_ stay late!"

They seemed skeptical, which is reasonable. But I felt sure about my abilities, so I assured them, "As long as you make me a form like that one, I'll know what to look and listen for with the parts you're testing, and it'll give me a chance to practice!" 

And, in the end, they agreed! Now on my days off, I'll spend time with Lea, Hayner, Pence, and Olette in the morning and spend the afternoon running test-flights in the Gummi Ship! I can't believe it. Now, not only am I training as a keyblade wielder, I'm training as a gummi ship pilot and mechanic too. I am determined to be helpful to Sora and Riku after everything they've done for me, and now I'll be able to help in so many more ways!

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave me a comment; what Twilight Town shop would you want to run?


	3. These New Duds are... Duds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi has a mostly-good day, but is still pretty pissed.  
> Lea helps.  
> Yen Sid can go suck a butt.

Day 17

Some really great things happened today, and I wish I could be excited about those things and hold onto those feelings, but... I'm just. 

Ugh!

I just have such a bad taste in my mouth.

Here, I'll take you through it:

1\. Lea and I both finally summoned our keyblades today! On purpose! It's so exhilarating--willing something to happen, and then it happening. Once we proved we could summon them a second time and it wasn't just a fluke, Merlin started giving us little challenges: Could we summon them with our eyes closed? Could we do it when loud music was playing? While someone was tickling us? After running five laps? 

By the end of the day's training, we could both summon our keyblades at will no matter how distracted or exhausted we were.

2\. As Lea and I started to leave the training grounds, Merlin stopped us. He said he had a surprise for us and led us to the old mansion, where Riku and King Mickey were waiting for us! I was so excited to see Riku and I had so much I wanted to catch up with him about, I immediately asked Merlin if we could spend the afternoon in town. 

"Unfortunately, the time you spend outside of the bubble is already all we can afford." (now that I think about it, I guess in the outside world it must still be the same day as it was on our last day off, and we already burned that day), "But, the good news is that both Riku and mickey's keyblades are broken beyond repair!" 

I looked around at Riku, confused and concerned and he explained, "Mickey and I are gonna be training with you for a minute, to be able to summon new keyblades."

So that's great! Two great things! Lea and I summoned keyblades, and not only did I get to see Riku, he's actually gonna hang out for a couple of days! I should be ecstatically happy right now! I should be celebrating! Instead I'm being angry and this whole day, that was supposed to be so good, is ruined!

Here's the next thing that happened.

I offered to help Riku and Mickey unpack their suitcases, and Mickey said, "Oh! No, that's right--these are for you and Lea. They're new outfits from Master Yen Sid. They're made with special magic that will shield you from darkness." So that's fine. That's a present. That should probably go in the "good" category. Except, when I got back to my room and opened up my suitcase to see my outfit, it was totally impractical! Even worse than the dress I'm wearing now! The skirt is so short, there's no way I can learn to fight in this. And the more I think about it, the more it seems like maybe Yen Sid gave me this outfit because he doesn't really expect me to learn to fight. I take offense to that! 

So, even though I had a really good day, I'm finishing it in this lousy mood. I'm mad at Yen Sid for sending me this outfit, and for presumably not believing in me, and for ruining what should have been a really good day!

Tomorrow I'll talk to Merlin and see if there's anything that can be done, I guess.

* * *

Day 18

Update: Hey, actually, FUCK Yen Sid

* * *

Day 18, again, later

Okay, here's what actually happened. I met up with Lea before training, and he was still in his Organization cloak. He said he wasn't going to wear his new outfit at all. So when we got to training, I asked Merlin if it was alright for me to do that too. He... did some magic? As far as I can tell he attached the idea of my question to a bird, and then threw it. After a minute, it came flying back at him. He caught it and it opened its mouth and Yen Sid's voice came out, loud and clear:

"It is critically important that Kairi wear these new vestments as protection against the darkness. We cannot know what awaits us. If Kairi feels that they may limit her movement, then it is all the more important that she start training in them now, to learn what she will and won't be able to do in them."

Merlin just shrugged apologetically and started the training for the day. Even though Lea and I both summoned keyblades yesterday, we're still on meditation training. It's mostly for Riku and Mickey's benefit, since they need to summon new keyblades. 

While everyone had their eyes closed seeking the manifestation of the light within or whatever, I grabbed lea by the elbow, shushed him real fast, then tiptoed him away. He let me yell for a while, and I felt a little silly being so upset about clothes, but Lea gets it. The style of clothes Yen Sid sent over says something about what he expects of me, and there's definitely a double standard with Lea not being required to wear his, but I am "for my protection".

When I finally slowed down, I asked him, "What was the outfit you got even like anyway?"

He kicked open his suitcase and showed me the loose pants with plaid cuffs and plaid at the trim of the pockets; the deep red v-neck shirt; the short-sleeved, hooded jacket.

"It reminded me too much of stuff I've seen Sora wear, and it looks too much like Riku and Mickey's new duds. I've gotta stay... recognizable." He zoned out for a minute; I've learned that any time he does that he's thinking about reuniting with Roxas, so I don't ask anymore. Anyway, I was distracted looking through his clothes. Lea's, like, eight feet tall, but other than that we're pretty similar shapes. And these clothes were made to shield their wearer from the darkness, same as mine. 

"Hey, Lea, I have an idea."

I held up the shirt in front of me to show how it would fit, and Lea looked in turns confused and then seriously on board. A huge grin spread across his face.

"Oh, you're a rebel! Alright, let's do this!" He ran out to his room, then came back with a sewing kit and started measuring me. "I used to make all my own clothes when I was a kid," he explained, "I remember when I got my first set of chakrams--I was so excited I sewed special chakram pockets into all my pants." He chuckled and shook his head, remembering.

"I've never learned to do anything like that. Will you tell me about what you're doing so I can learn?"

We spent the rest of the day like that, taking measurements, marking out patterns on the clothes, picking out pieces from my old clothes, my new clothes (although really the boots are the only thing worth keeping there), and Lea's clothes and deciding how to put them together. Tomorrow we're gonna sneak out again and do all the sewing and see how it fits!

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tiny Brain: Kairi always wears these dinky, frilly outfits! How's she supposed to fight in those? she must not be very good at fighting
> 
> Large Brain: Yen Sid is the one who designed and told Kairi to wear this impractical and revealing outfit; Yen Sid is just a dirty old man!
> 
> Galaxy Brain: All of these people are fictional and don't have any actual agency. Nomura is a dirty old man.


	4. Beyond the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kairi flies solo and meets a new old friend.

Day 21

Riku and Mickey got their new keyblades yesterday and left this morning. I tried to get Riku to stay and hang out for our day off, but as soon as they got out of the time bubble he and Mickey were both really anxious to get going. I can appreciate that.

During the week they were here, Riku tried to catch me up on what's going on and what everyone's up to over our after-training ice creams. I don't really grock all of it, but I understand that time is of the essence. Everyone is very busy working hard to save the other keyblade wielders. I can't wait to meet them all one day.

I can't wait to join them all one day.

I guess it's just as well Riku and Mickey didn't stick around; Lea and I finished my new clothes yesterday and I wanted to try them out when we went into town. I don't think I would've done it if they'd stayed. It was nice to keep it just between me and Lea for one more day. Tomorrow we start combat training (Merlin said we'll have special guest combat experts coming to lead our training for a while) so I'll be glad to have more practical combat-ready clothes!

As for our day off--Hayner, Pence, and Olette were in school cos I guess it's a weekday (I had almost forgotten all about school--and weekdays. woops!). So Lea and I spent the morning cheering on our favorite strugglers. Lea got a little too into it and accidentally challenged the champion, Setzer, to a match when we're here tomorrow (next week), so I took him out to lunch to cool off. I was trying to help him mellow, but I have to admit I was a little distracted: right after lunch I headed to my first real shift in the Gummi Shop!

* * *

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE:

RED--HUEY

BLUE--DEWEY

GREEN--LOUIE

When I got there, Dewey and Louie were the only ones in the shop. They told me Huey had gone down to the garage to install a new piece for me to test today, and that I should go down when I was ready. I raced down the stairs as fast as I could, hoping to learn a little bit from watching the install. Huey was on his back under the gummi ship, working. 

A little voice, making itself much louder than it should have been able to, called out from under the ship. "Almost done, Kairi! Here, hold this." He handed me a wrench so he could use both hands to pull himself out from under the ship. "There we go. How ya doin' Kairi?"

"I'm great! What are you working on there?"

"I just finished installing a Warp Gummi! You're gonna help me test it out today right?"

"Absolutely! What does it do? What do I need to test for?"

Huey walked over to one of the drafting tables along the wall, covered in blueprints and crumpled schematics. The corners of the paper were rolling up, so I pocketed the wrench I was still holding and held down the paper. The blueprint he showed me didn't show a ship, but seemed to show space itself instead. He pointed at the worlds marked on the paper, and then the lines connecting them.

"Worlds are sorta in clusters like this. When you're in a cluster, you can fly around it like we did yesterday, but to get to a different cluster, ya gotta warp!"

"Okay. Do different warp pieces lead different places?"

"NOPE! They all do the same thing! Your heart will decide which cluster you unlock, and lead you where you need to go. The connections our heart has made guide us."

"Okay. So different people using the same warp gummi might end up different places? If that's the case, then what can I test for?"

Huey handed me a clipboard with a form on it, just like the one we had used when we tested out the engine gummi yesterday. The form asked for things like time when entering warp, time when exiting warp, and...

"...color of space?" I brought my baffled look up from the paper to meet Huey's eyes. He was holding out a watch, which I took and put on.

"Yup! Just write down everything exactly as it happens. We'll be able to interpret the data you bring back, okay?"

We both boarded the ship, and Huey quizzed me on the controls to make sure I still had them in my head from last time, then gave me a quick lesson on how to use the warp drive, emphasizing that I should note the time both entering and exiting warp. Then Huey left, gave me the all clear, and I took off!

* * *

 

I spent a few minutes just flying around, and noticed on my monitor that, just like Huey had said, I seemed to be in a small cluster of a few worlds. After getting my bearings, I pointed the ship toward the outside of the cluster, then closed my eyes and breathed deeply.

Huey had said that my heart would decide what cluster opened up to me with the warp gummi. The connections my heart has made would guide me. I tried to think who my heart is most connected to. I thought maybe it would take me to wherever Sora or Riku are. Or maybe back to the islands? No way to know till I did it. So I did it. 

Diligently making note of the time, I hit the warp button.

All of space seemed to rush past me and glow... blue? Then suddenly I was sitting still again. I looked at my watch. It was the exact time, down to the second, that I had hit the button. After I wrote everything down, I had technically done everything I was supposed to do. But I was too curious about where my heart had led me. Looking down at the world I was closest to, my first thought was that I didn't recognize it. My second thought what that I had never seen any world from space and probably wouldn't even recognize my islands from this angle. 

Very tentatively, I decided to fly low to see if I could tell what this world was. I flew over some forest, a couple of stately manors, and a huge, beautiful, sparkling castle. None of this was ringing any bells. Wasn't I supposed to have some sort of connection to wherever I ended up? 

I donno if it was plain curiosity, or the old urge that had driven us to build our raft in the first place--the urge to see new worlds--but I happened to notice that the sprawling courtyards outside the castle were more than big enough for me to set down in. And I landed the ship. And I got out. 

And I immediately heard--was that someone screaming? I summoned my keyblade and rushed toward the noise, only to realize the person was screaming in frustration, not fear. And, to my surprise, she was someone I recognized! Cinderella!

I ran toward her yelling, "Cindy!" and we hugged. When our surprise wore off, I noticed she was crying just a bit. And then I noticed I was crying just a bit too. "Cindy, I never thought I'd see you again. I haven't seen you--any of you--since..."

"Since Hollow Bastion. I know. I never thought I'd see you again either! How did you get here?"

I explained about the Gummi Ship and my training and how we were trying to save the other keyblade wielders, when she stopped me cold.

"Other keyblade wielders? What do you mean? I've only ever met three besides Sora, and you can't mean them."

"Well, there's a bunch of people. There's Roxas for one thing, but that's a whole situation," she seemed relieved to hear a name she didn't recognize, "then there's Terra, Aqua, and Ventus."

When I said that she took me by the shoulders. "You know Aqua?"

"Well, I don't know her exactly..."  
"Come with me to the castle. Tell me everything."

She turned toward her carriage, about to offer me a hand up to climb inside, before she groaned again. "The wheel! I forgot--it's broken." Luckily we're not far from the castle, so we're not stranded, but I'll have to send someone to fix it..."

I knelt down to look, and noticed that the problem was just a loose bolt. I also noticed I was still wearing my apron from the shop, and it still had Huey's wrench in the pocket! I fixed up the carriage and got us back to the castle in half the time.

Over dinner, I told her everything I could remember from Riku's explanations about who was trapped in the realm of darkness, who's heart was taking refuge in whose, etc. The weird thing was, she seemed only politely interested in the fates of Terra, Ventus, and Roxas (I mean, don't get me wrong, she very much doesn't want anyone to go un-rescued), but she was deeply invested in finding out what happened to Aqua, how long she had been trapped, what information we had gathered--anything at all I could tell her. 

After dinner, I realized I absolutely had to get back into the time bubble before the end of the day. Cindy nodded knowingly and just said, "Yes, I completely understand about time restrictions, but do promise to come back soon."

I promised.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for sticking with it! It's starting to take shape now! Feel free to draw Kairi's dope outfit; I'm leaving it intentionally vague and up for interpretation!


End file.
